24 PROPERTIES OF MATTER 



objectionable, because extremely defective. 

 Instead of comprehending the whole, it ex- 

 cludes a part, it excludes that immense and 

 indefinite portion of matter, which, instead of 

 being mined and immured within the bowels of 

 the earth, subsists, for the most part, out of it ; 

 it not only excludes water, and gaseous bodies 

 in general, but the whole planetary system in 

 particular. To supply this state of imperfec- 

 tion, I shall class the whole system of nature, 

 as it has been called, and the matter of which 

 it is composed, under the three distinct heads, 

 of common, of living, and of dead matter. 



FIRST, By living matter, I comprehend the 

 various orders of living beings with which the 

 universe is replenished and adorned. 



SECONDLY, By dead matter, I confine myself 

 to the exuviae of animals, and of vegetables ; as 

 well as to the whole substance of which these 

 beings are composed, after the actions of life 

 are at an end, and the state which is known by 

 the appellation of death. 



THIRDLY, By common matter, I mean the pri- 

 mitive, or original materials, or elements, of 

 which the world is composed ; matter which 

 either, has never received the participation of 

 life, or having received, has lost it, and been re- 

 solved back into a common state. 



To physiology, belongs the province of inves- 

 tigating the properties of living matter. To 



